Bill Gates spoke about the most likely global disaster in the modern world

In an interview with Vox, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates talked about his vision of the current problems of humanity and what, in his opinion, is now the greatest danger. Gates believes that such a problem could be a global epidemic of an easily tolerated disease, such as the Spanish flu at the turn of the century. In modern conditions of the global world, the spread of infection will be so rapid that in the first hundred days it will be able to kill 770,000 people, and in 200 days more than 33 million people will be its victims.

“I assess the chances of a nuclear war during my life as very low,” says Gates. "I estimate the chances of a widespread epidemic of the disease, which will be much worse than Ebola, in the same time, exceeding 50%." According to Gates, who is now 59 years old, the problems of falling asteroids, global earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, which are better known due to Hollywood films, have a very low probability of happening.

Estimating the spread of the global epidemic and the number of its victims is the result of the work of a special research group founded by Gates. Despite the fact that the level of medical support has risen much over the past hundred years, new medicines and medical equipment have appeared, this achievement will be leveled by the modern possibilities of moving people around the globe who will be involuntary carriers of the disease. Therefore, the spread of infection will be very rapid.

There is also a very serious problem of medical support for the so-called countries of the "third world". While in the United States the government spends an average of $ 8,000 to protect one person’s health, in Eritrea it’s only $ 20. It may seem to most that this is actually the problem of a single African state, but, as Gates observes, in a rapidly spreading global epidemic, this problem will very quickly become a problem for countries with a high level of development of both the economy and medicine.

Bill Gates is known for his charitable foundation and disease control in the world's poorest countries. Last year he donated$ 500 million to fight malaria in Africa, from which 600,000 people die every year. His phrase is known: “I just turned 59 years old. I’m very upset if I do not live to see the time when malaria will be eradicated. "